May 31, 2022

Who needs more things? Americans want things to do

Customers eat lunch at Boudin Bakery on May 11, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Consumer spending on services has reached pre-pandemic levels. Also on today's program, the disinvestment in gun violence research.

Segments From this episode

Consumers are spending on services again as the pandemic shopping spree for goods cools

by Sabri Ben-Achour

May 31, 2022

People want to get outside and do stuff, not just buy stuff. That's reflected in surging travel bookings — and airfare.

Consumers are still spending on big-ticket, durable goods like furniture. But now demand for services is picking up again.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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Summer jobs are plentiful. Applicants are not.

by Meghan McCarty Carino

May 31, 2022

Summer tourism industries continue to face a worker shortage and climbing wages. Teenagers, especially, are in demand.

The American Lifeguard Association warns that a third of U.S. public pools could remain closed this summer due to staffing shortages.

Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

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Why are there still so few houses for sale?

by Matt Levin

May 31, 2022

Sellers who don't want to become buyers and the refinancing craze play roles in the lack of supply.

On a typical day in April 2019, about 1.2 million homes were for sale in the United States. Last month, it was a little over 400,000.

Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

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Why the U.S. stopped researching gun violence: "It's a thing that has set us back decades"

by Kai Ryssdal and Andie Corban

May 31, 2022

John Woodrow Cox of The Washington Post explains how a 1996 legal provision effectively halted research on gun violence.

Flowers and crosses memorialize the 19 children and two teachers killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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Is European resolve against Russia’s war beginning to soften?

by Stephen Beard

May 31, 2022

The EU has just unveiled a punitive ban on oil imports from Russia — but the Ukrainian government is unimpressed.

The Ukrainian flag at the European Parliament building in Brussels. The European Union's ban on the majority of oil imports from Russia is too weak to satisfy Ukraine and some EU member nations.

François Walschaerts/AFP via Getty Images

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Need a CT scan? You may have to wait weeks, thanks to lockdowns in China and dye shortages

by Samantha Fields

May 31, 2022

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, a critical Shanghai plant that produces the dye has been operating at reduced capacity for weeks.

Hospitals low on contrast dye are doing some CT scans without it or are booking patients weeks or months in advance.

Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images

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Music from the episode

Old Graffiti Bibio

Make It Better (feat. Smokey Robinson) Anderson .Paak, Smokey Robinson

Melloton Liam Huston

Hypercolor goosetaf, anbuu, chromonicci

Antenna Bonobo

TV Queen Wild Nothing

The team

Nancy Farghalli Executive Producer

Maria Hollenhorst Producer II

Andie Corban Producer I

Sean McHenry Director & Associate Producer II

Richard Cunningham Associate Producer I

Dylan Miettinen Associate Digital Producer

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